L Landscape Domestication and Archaeology Charles R. Clement 1 and Mariana F. Cassino 2 1 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil 2 Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil Introduction The term “domesticated landscape” was intro- duced by Douglas Yen (1989), and a decade later “landscape domestication” was defined as a pro- cess of human-mediated landscape transformation (Clement 1999), which fits comfortably into the increasingly popular conceptual framework of human or cultural niche construction (Laland and O’Brien 2010; Smith 2011). During the last decade or so the term “landscape domestication” has become increasingly visible in archaeology and historical ecology, in parallel with the increas- ing visibility of cultural niche construction. Some find this use of “domestication” to be inappropri- ate, however, as domestication is often associated with Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. A glance at a dictionary dispels confusion, as there are no mentions of evolution or selection or genetics in the definitions. The term comes from the Latin domesticäre to dwell in a house, to accustom (Harlan 1992). A house is a built environment and has been part of our experience since people started constructing their own shel- ters from the elements. The house in the country- side is surrounded by a garden, which also has a dump heap, both of which are intimately involved in the domestication of plants (Smith 2007). Hence, there is a strong relationship between land- scape domestication and plant or animal domesti- cation, as pointed out by (Rindos 1984), although he preferred the “developing agroecology” to landscape domestication. Cultural niche construc- tion combines these domestications to explain how humans became so successful (Laland and O’Brien 2010; Smith 2011). There is a relationship with evolution. Both domestication and evolution are processes. In evolution, natural selection is the primary agent, while in landscape domestication, culture is the primary agent, as it is in cultural niche construc- tion (Laland and O’Brien 2010). As geographer Carl Sauer (1925) wrote, “The cultural landscape is fashioned from the natural landscape by a cul- ture group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape the result.” Hence, “Human actions over time are manifested in landscapes that retain physical evidence of cul- tural practices, decisions, and ideas” (Crumley 1994: 9). These domesticated landscapes are part of the “ecological inheritance” of cultural niche construction (Laland and O’Brien 2010). It is now well accepted that forager societies consciously and unconsciously manage individual plants and plant populations in the landscape, as well as managing groups of animals and taming # Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 C. Smith (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_817-2